Vessel Of Iniquity – Graveyard of Dead Gods [UK, Black / Death / Noise] (2022)

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Self Released | 1-12-22

Back in 2017, I wrote about the debut from UK project Vessel Of Iniquity. The self titled debut came out on various labels and I believe I wrote about the Xenoglossy Productions version. I was blindsided by the force and reckless abandoning of the sound. Graveyard of Dead Gods and Architecture of Existence are two “new” EPs for 2022 consisting of songs that were “An old unused EP I found on my hard drive.” The dichotomy between the music and the seemingly carefree attitude of its creator is striking as both EPs feel like a terrible storm. v operates without constraints and the sound of both new EPs has a driving rhythm that feels more like a mounting wave of chaos and confusion. The addition of the music being without a time or place of conception adds to its other-worldly-ness as these two EPs have appeared in our world and now are set loose among the population. This project is unpredictable as it is intriguing and I fully expect to be terrorized by it in the near future.

Winter Lantern / Possession Cult – Split [US, Raw Black] (2021)

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Self Released | 9-1-21

Both Winter Lantern and Possession Cult are from the US and both of them seem to be drawn together by an shared interest in vampyric blood letting. The tag of vampyric black metal may seem obvious or even too niche for mention but its combination produces, mostly, raw black metal that has thrown itself to the whims of aesthetics. I enjoy when artists allow themselves to be carried by theatrics and the undying love for the undead has broad appeal for people outside the raw black sphere of interest. The union of both artists is ugly only in that the sound for each side is raw and soiled and complexly fitting for its intention. Possession Cult is the hideous creature locked away in some basement while winter Lantern is the specter that haunts the spires of this castle. Both are entirely unique and each one is terrifying in its approach.

Sovnya – Sovnya [US, Raw Black / Punk] (2021)

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Self Released | 8-31-21

I fist would like to give a special thanks to whoever designed the cover for Sovnya’s self titled debut as I feel it is a magnet for anyone who seeks out visual low fidelity. The raw cover is similar to other raw black metal but its use of mostly white and light blue is unique especially when paired with more of a punk sound. Sovnya is from New Jersey and their debut only totals about nine minutes with three of it being spent in noisy space. It is within these nine minutes though, the band has ample time to lob a brick at its listeners. With as much attitude as ample chaos, Sovnya positions themselves in an interesting space where the ruin of sound propels the music towards entertaining conclusions. As mentioned before, the use of noise and space in such a short timeframe shows a band that is not in a hurry to make anything commercial or even accessible to listeners. Sovnya is making music the way they want to and with the time they have they have chosen things that deconstruct reality.

Thecodontion / Vessel of Iniquity – The Permian-Triassic Extinction Event [Italy / UK, Death / Black / Noise] (2021)

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I, Voidhanger | 9-3-21

The Permian-Triassic boundary is a great mystery of geological science: an event in which over 83 percent of all genera died. This period separates the Paleozoic Era from the Mesozoic Era – two of the great eras in our planet’s history. If you were a 6-year-old obsessed with dinosaurs like I was (or a 29-year-old like me now for whom that obsession still lives!), you might recall that the Mesozoic Era was when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. So what better two bands to explore this event than Thecodontion and Vessel of Iniquity? Thecodontion brings two black-and-death metal tracks from the Supercontinent recording sessions, which was my #4 album of 2020. These explore two taxa that emerged after the extinction, heralding the start of the Age of Reptiles, using dead-serious and extraordinarily researched history of both species’ classification schemes. Both tracks feature the band’s characteristic drum-and-bass approach to death metal with octave pedals to produce a unique, clean “lead guitar” tone. They’re riffy, clean, and filled with evocative solos that will click for fans of last year’s LP. And yet for this life to have flourished, death first occurred – that’s where Vessel of Iniquity comes in. “The Great Dying” is another name for the extinction event, and Vessel of Iniquity’s mixture of black metal and noise is perfectly suited for the harrowing, slow death brought to tens of millions of species. The track’s eleven minutes begin with a roaring wall-of-noise that gradually settles into a slow dread, later culminating in SP White’s layered shrieks and mournful guitar strums. Two stories of the same history – one of life, one of death – and an excellent split for all fans of extreme metal.

Effluence – Ballistic Bloodspray [US, Brutal Death / Grind / Noise] (2021)

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Self Released | 4-9-21

I can’t imagine a better title to this EP: this is a ballistic spray of blood. No question. The Czech deathgrind band Contrastic notably merged totally non-metal instruments into their self-titled LP (the one with The Little Mermaid on the cover); but if they were the fun one in the family, then Effluence is like the unhinged younger brother who took his sibling’s imagery a bit too far. This 12-minute EP is an absolutely bonkers mix of technical death metal, brutal death metal, grindcore, and noise. There’s the slightest bit of remaining wonkyness that hints at a sense of humor(???), like the piano on “Unending Separation” and the clarinet on both “Unholy Liquid” and “Miasma of Entrails”. It’s weird, experimental, and intense music – similar to what Genophobic Perversion is doing, and this feels a little more polish in perversity. Celebrate in good vibes.

Dosanjos – Heterogeneous Hieratic Areopagus [Brazil, Black / Death / Noise] (2021)

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Self Released | 1-13-21

Welcome the new year. Welcome horror and dismay. Dosanjos does not have a Metal Archives nor can I really find any information related to the band which leads me to beleive they are just demons from Brazil that vomit forth noise. I am fine with this. Heterogeneous Hieratic Areopagus is not an easy listen and for a fan of raw black, this album is one of the more soul scraping releases in recent memory. With a soundscape which evokes unease and an atmosphere riddled with anxiety, Dosanjos exists to promotes distress and Heterogeneous Hieratic Areopagus is a thesis in misery. I know for some this tone of music is everything they could possibly hope for as this type of weirdness is magnetic.

Vultures Ov Veles – Demo 2020 [US, Raw Black / Noise] (2020)

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Self Released | 12-3-20

All I want in life is to listen to ear shattering noises at 8:46 in the morning with a cup of black coffee and an overcast sky. I have no idea who Vultures Ov Veles is or why they decided to add anxious noise into their already caustic black metal but this declaration of ruin is everything I want right now. Demo 2020 perhaps will not reach many people as that initial welcome of noise is enough to send any sensible person in the other direction. For the weirdos that are still here however, Vultures Ov Veles is a sound that keeps people honest in their weirdness and allows everyone to revel in the pitch black.

Dust Drinker – Sky Burial [US, Ritual Ambient / Noise] (2020)

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Self Released | 10-7-20

This fits in both camps for this blog and possibly neither. I do not know if this album is correctly tagged as ritual ambient but the Bandcamp used the tag “ritual” and I am going to run with it. Ritual ambient has been an interest for me partially due to its nebulous nature. Caught between drone, noise, and dark ambient, the style has been noted for its spiritual undercroft combed with a pageantry for the bizarre and supernatural. I have no way of knowing if Dust Drinker’s Sky Burial possesses these qualities but its songs regarding death and passage is certainly in the correct unsettling ballpark. With a churning drones and a rattling cacophony, Sky Burial is less an album and more of a call from the ether. I do not know if this possesses the spiritual natural akin to most ritual ambient but it certainly is possessed.

Deathvoid – Terrace [Switzerland, Noise / Black] (2020)

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Xenoglossy Productions | 9-4-20

There are often times when the noise tag for an record comes as a cosmetic aesthetic. the addition of noise in production can add a certain raw edge to music that is already feral in sound. There are often times when the noise tag is apart of a genre and has surrendered its sound the the formless void of a style I might not fully understand. Deathvoid’s is something I understand though it is a record which I only have the most basic of grasp on with the threat of it dispersing into the void. Deathvoid appeared on a fantastically frightening split with Illuminated Manuscripts. That particular release was my first foray into a haunted world where ghosts did not linger in shadows rather cause bodily harm from the ceiling. Terrace continues the band’s descent into artsy formlessness with a landscape of horror, unease, and feral spirits.

The World is Burning and I’m Just Sitting Here Making Grindcore Songs – The End of the World [US, Grind / Noise] (2020)

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Self Released | 8-15-20

At some points, I wonder where music stops and where weird art projects begin. The World is Burning and I’m Just Sitting Here Making Grindcore Songs is most certainly a bedroom art / music project with irreverence a weapon that is wielded around with abandon. The End of the World is a remix / re imagining / pastiche of the 1962 Skeeter Davis song inter fused with noise grind. The cover fits this motif with Davis’ cover super imposed with the horrifically crafted logo of the project. Though the end result is something maligned and aggressive, the idea and ultimate balance between melodic 60’s country pop and noise is something that I could see continuing in further exploration. One of strangest aspects about this whole affair is the reverence for the original song and its placement between the bits of noise and destruction. It is something that could have fallen into imbalance but for now it oddly works.